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Reeftank Log
Reeftank Log Archives
Thursday, May 30, 2002
Green slimer SPS died and left a skeleton. That really stinks. Everything else in the tank is doing fine though. I've turned up the Vornado fan blowing across the 29G since the weather is getting warmer. Oh, I miss my big piece of green slimer sps!
posted 2:58 PM
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Changed 48 liters yesterday and used up the last of my Instant Ocean. I bought three bags of Meersaltz at Aquarium Concepts this past weekend, and I hope it performs well. It's made by Aquacraft. Their website is at www.aquacraft.net, but there isn't much info about the salt on that site. I liked the new Aquarium Concepts store a lot, but since I'll be moving soon, all I purchased was some filter brushes, the salt, and four large turbo snails. This past weekend, I also moved some corals from the growout tank to the 50G at home. I first tried to use Zap Gel to attach a green slimer SPS frag, and when that didn't hold, I used some Aquastick epoxy. Hours later, I noticed all the corals were shriveled and closed up. From my experience, I don't think it was the epoxy that caused the problem. I think it has something to do with the Zap gel, since I used a smaller amount to attach some Xenia last week and a similar thing happened, only not as drastic. To improve the water quality conditions, I added a bag of Chemi-pure and a Poly-filter pad. I also cleaned out the skimmer cup and performed the 48 liter water change yesterday. This morning, everything looked much better. I'll try to stay away from using the Zap gel in the future. I recall the structure I built at work using superglue to attach the parts and how it killed all my Xenia. I believe superglue may give off some toxin that affects corals, but it isn't deadly as long as it isn't a very large amount.
posted 1:22 PM
Thursday, May 23, 2002
Changed 40 liters yesterday. I've left the lights off the tank for the past two days. Will probably leave them off for one more day. Will turn on lights for four hours a day starting on Friday. Added one teaspoon of Seachem Strontium and two teaspoons of Seachem Magnesium. I'm still dripping 1.5 liters of kalkwasser a day. It seems to be contributing to some really good coralline algae growth. Saw at least six of the Tiger Trochus snails alive. Corals were closed up for the past two days, but they look fine now. Caulerpa mexicana and Caulerpa prolifera in refugium don't seem to be growing too well. I'll take out the mexicana for now. I wonder if the serrulata has some effect on their growth or if the nutrient levels are so low in the tank that the macroalgae isn't growing. Hair algae is still a problem in the 50G. I may purchase a used Euro-reef CS-1 skimmer in order to really suck out the wastes in the tank. I'll try to clean and empty the skimmer every other day in order to maintain its efficiency.
posted 11:50 AM
Wednesday, May 15, 2002
I'm so mad at myself. I acclimated the eTropicals order for two hours by pouring a few ounces of tank water into the bag water every fifteen minutes, but it looks like that still wasn't enough for the Diadema and the snails - the Diadema has lost all its spines and I don't see many Tiger Trochus snails. I think it also didn't help that I was dripping kalkwasser. In the future, I shouldn't drip kalkwasser while I'm acclimating since it brings up the pH. The hermit crabs seem to have done fine, but the urchins and snails are very sensitive. At least the tuxedo urchins look like they're doing okay. I scraped a lot algae and cleaned the intakes off the powerheads in the 50G yesterday. With the clean intakes, the powerheads are producing the type of waterflow that might help get rid of the hair algae. I'll have to be sure to check those intakes regularly.
I brought home two large brown Xenia yesterday in the hope that they'll grow and suck up the nutrients that the hair algae is making use of. I'm also hoping they have some type of alleopathic effect on any nuisance algae. When I had a huge stand of brown Xenia, I would regularly harvest it, and the huge clumps of Xenia were a very effective means of nutrient export.
posted 9:09 AM
Friday, May 10, 2002
I just tested the TDS (total dissolved solids) of various water sources with the TDS meter that came from Dave's Reefpure. Here are the following results:
1. tapwater 35 ppm
2. saltwater aquarium 445 ppm
3. freshwater aquarium 180 ppm
4. RO/DI water 0 ppm
What's interesting is that I tested the water in two containers that I filled earlier today from the RO/DI reservoir and one read 35 ppm while another one read 70 ppm!
I poured out the 35 ppm water into the freshwater tank and refilled it with the siphon pump attached to the RO/DI reservoir and it read 0 ppm. I can only think of two things that could be causing this:
1. 1 gallon container had some solids in it that were dissolved by the RO/DI water
2. Solids are falling into or leaching from the RO/DI reservoir over time.
I hope it's number 2!
I'm getting 20 hermit crabs, 3 urchins and ten tiger trochus snails from eTropicals tomorrow morning. I hope they do a good job on the nuisance algae in the 50G. I'm particularly interested in seeing how the Diadema urchin and the tiger trochus will do. I only ordered from eTropicals after extracting the large Sally Lightfoot crab and putting it in the sump at work. I used the tall glass trap with food at the bottom. The crab is attracted to the food and goes to the bottom of the glass, but the sides are so steep and slick, it can't get out! I really love the build your own feature on the eTropicals Web site.
Took out the feather caulpera last night from the 29G refugium since it had a funny color.
posted 5:28 PM
Friday, May 03, 2002
It looks like there's some lateral line regression on the blue tang although he eats the most of any of the fish. Maybe I should get him some nice frozen food to eat. I'm trying to drip kalkwasser in the morning and evening in order to really keep up the calcium levels in the tank. 3 liters (two full Aquadose containers) of drip a day is a little bit more than the evaporative rate from the system right now, so I'll make sure I'm not dripping too much. I am adding a very concentrated mix of kalkwasser, so I think I am affecting the calcium levels in the tank, as evidenced by the coralline algae growth.
posted 11:19 AM
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
Aaaah! Hair algae is still growing back in the 50G. I'm going to follow these procedures:
1. No trace element additions except for strontium
2. Lighting cut to 4 hours a day in 50G.
3. Calcium supplementation via Aquadose with 1 tsp of Kalkwasser mix and 1500 ml of RO/DI water every morning. To make this mix, I first fill the Aquadose with 200 ml of water, add the Kalkwasser mix, and then shake the Aquadose. I then add the rest of the water and let it drip. This should provide some really fresh Kalkwasser for the tank.
4. Empty skimmer cup every other day
5. 300 ml of carbon a week
6. 40 liter water change a week
posted 9:40 AM
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